Columns: Things I Wish I Knew Before I Played Blade & Soul

Blade & Soul Officially launches Tuesday at Midnight EST, 9pm PST. We’ve been playing in the Head Start, finally getting our bearings officially and starting our own small clan on the Old Man Cho server. We’re sure many of you have played or dabbled in the closed beta events, but for those launching themselves finally into this Eastern Wuxia themed MMORPG, we’ve put together a list of things we wish we would have known going in.

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Repair Wisely

Your weapons degrade over time and use. It might seem like a wise idea to repair as often as possible whenever your weapon is a little worn down. But don’t. Repairing uses repair tools, an inventory item that’s not always easy to come by, and can be costly when bought from vendors. Instead, wait to repair your weapon until it’s broken or close to being broken. There’s no reason to do it early.

You can get more hammers from the Daily Dash, for example.

Salvage or Upgrade, Don’t Sell

When it comes to weapons you find, or soul shields you don’t need, don’t just vendor them to the NPCs. The weapons can all be used to upgrade your chosen weapon, and the soul shields you don’t need can be salvaged to get transmutation materials for your items. The higher the level of your salvaged soul shield, the better the chance of getting materials. If you get junk from salvaging, just sell that.

Hongmoon Items or Bust

You might be tempted to change or use different weapons than your Hongmoon weapon (obtained from the game’s tutorial), or your Hongmoon amulet, ring, or earring. Don’t be fooled. Each of these items are theoretically the best in the game and can be upgraded from level 1 to 45 to keep pace with your character’s level. That doesn’t mean they’ll always have to look the same as everyone else’s though, as you can use any other weapon’s looks to skin your Hongmoon weapon.

A portal to an easy (white) solo dungeon.

Kill the Ploggle King… A Lot

When you arrive at the Croaker Lagoon (around level 16 or 17), you’ll have a quest to kill the world boss mob King Ginanura. Do so more than the required once, hang out there to do it a few times, and you’ll wind up great gems (an Amethyst and a Ruby) that can help you in your weapon all the way up to level 45.

Dungeon Portals Speak in Numbers and Colors

Maybe some of you are smarter than we are, but for the longest time we didn’t realize that a dungeon’s portals denote a suggested or allowed number of players in a group that may enter at once. If you see a single circle on a portal, that means it’s suggested for one person. Three means that it’s suggested for three. Additionally, the color of the portal shows you how hard it will be. White is easiest, green is a little harder, blue is hard, and purple is epic in difficulty.

Sometimes less than serious, in this space, we look back at the genre's history and far into the future to bring you a new list each week. Our countdowns are written by assorted members of the MMORPG.com Staff.